


Adaptable

by writelikeitsgoingoutofstyle (twoandahalfslytherins)



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 12:58:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9608531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoandahalfslytherins/pseuds/writelikeitsgoingoutofstyle
Summary: Their plan for a valentine's weekend date goes array and Alex has far too much anxiety about why someone would want to date his talkative ass.Or-Aaron doesn't rub it in Alex's face that if he'd talked a little less, they would be seeing lemurs right now. But that doesn't mean he isn't going to tease him once Alex has calmed back down.





	

It should have been simple, really.

Walk up the ramp into the building, go to the front desk. Check in for the tour and have the date of a lifetime visiting with the lemurs.

It should have been simple.

But the perky blonde behind the desk did not smile and ask for Alex’s credit card. No. She shook her head instead. “I’m sorry, the tour is actually sold out for the day. Maybe tomorrow at 11 AM?”

Tomorrow.

Beside him, Aaron was talking. Made their excuses before putting an arm around Alex’s waist, using it to guide him out the door.

Tomorrow.

They wouldn’t be able to do tomorrow. 

Alex had- “Fuck. I’m so sorry. I’m a fucking disas-”

A finger pressed against Alex’s lips and he sagged. Of course apologizing wasn’t going to be enough. He’d fucked up their entire valentine’s weekend plans because he couldn’t shut up. They’d arrived over an hour early and instead of checking in like Aaron had suggested, Alex had gotten distracted looking at the different stuffed animals and then he’d dragged them both outside so that he could tell Aaron all about this webcomic he’d been reading recently with these adorable lesbians.

Aaron who had listened to patiently as Alex went into all the different plot lines because really, summarizing was for suckers and he could never figure out which details weren’t important. He couldn’t erase Austen’s struggle with her disability or her disordered eating and it would have been a crime to not talk about Sunati’s anxiety and fear. 

How all of their storylines, including Sunati’s best friend Rae’s, included this theme of being anxious about what came next. How Sunati had always been more adaptable, but she also wasn’t as good at picking what to do. How Rae only ever had one goal, and it always looked like such a good position to Sunati, but she’d been unable to see the downsides. Like Rae’s fear that maybe it wouldn’t be as good as she’d always dreamed, or she wouldn’t be able to get along without Sunati there by her side. Or how Austen stubbornly picked a goal to prove her worth despite hating it and struggling to switch paths to something she’d actually be good at and enjoy, feeling like she was giving in. That doing something else meant admitting that she was just a useless member of society.

No.

Alex couldn’t leave any of that out. Every little bit was so important but he hadn’t been thinking of the time and now Aaron was going to dump him for sure. He wasn’t stupid, he knew how much Aaron liked animals and he knew how much Aaron liked to stick to plan. How frustrated he got when things didn’t go the way they were supposed to, and here Alex was, contributing to that problem.

Again.

“Alex,” Aaron’s voice was far too soothing considering Alex was about to be abandoned at a lemur facility. “We can go and see the lemurs another day.”

Maybe. But it wouldn’t be this weekend and the whole point of this weekend-

“But you wanted to see them today.”

He hadn’t meant for that to come out so petulant, but whether or not Aaron wanted to pretend like it was okay or not right now- Alex knew what was coming.

What always came for him. He was inconsiderate. He talked too much. He didn’t care enough about what other people wanted to do. He wasn’t good at commitment.

Even Eliza had dumped him after a year and everyone had sworn they’d last forever. But she was so much happier with Maria than she ever was with him. They were going to build the family that Eliza always dreamed of starting with Alex, they were going to adopt or foster or maybe even do in vitro- it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Maria had been able to commit, had proven able to put others before herself.

Not that Alex didn’t try. It just always seemed to go wrong.

The press of lips against his was brief and Alex froze, unsure of what to do.

Aaron didn’t like pda. Swore he wasn’t in the closet anymore, swore he wasn’t afraid of people knowing he was dating Alex but-

“We can see them later,” Aaron repeated. “Now come on, to the car. No use hanging out by the gift shop. We can talk about what we’re going to do today once we’re warm again.”

“Everywhere’s going to be crowded-” Alex buckled his seatbelt, trying not to sound like a petulant child- “We’re definitely not going to be able to go to a restaurant. Those have probably been booked up for weeks. Which I should have done. I could have called ahead and made a reservation instead of-”

“Alex.” Again with that voice. “Breathe. Can you do that for me?”

No. 

Fuck, he was just making this worse. If Aaron could roll with the punches, why couldn’t he? “Where do we go from here?”

Because maybe, maybe if Aaron had an idea of what to do next, this wouldn’t be a complete disaster. After all, Aaron was good at planning, good at picking things out. Good at a lot of things Alex wasn’t.

“Well, you’re right about most places being crowded.” That wasn’t what Alex wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that Aaron had a solution. “But- I think I know of a few places that might not be.”

“Like what?”

Instead of answering him, Aaron backed out of the parking lot. Didn’t speak up until they were on the road again. “Why don’t you lay back and close your eyes for a bit? I’ve got this.”

“But-”

Aaron shook his head, tutting his tongue. “Shush. Relax, okay? Take a nap, you barely got any sleep last night.”

The fact that Aaron even knew that was worrisome. They were still pretty new to the whole ‘staying over’ thing, had only recently started leaving clothes at each other’s places just in case. Which meant it was too soon for Aaron to start realizing all the annoying things about Alex- like his insomnia.

“Please.”

Oh.

Okay. Alex fiddled with the side of the seat, curling up on his side when it was as far back as it could. If it were any other day, Aaron would chide him about that. Remind him of how unsafe it was to sit like that.

But Aaron let it go. Reached behind them at the next red light to grab the blanket he kept in his car, tossing it over Alex.

Maybe they were going far away? Maybe that was why Aaron wanted him to nap.

Not that he was able to actually do that. Trying to sleep in a car led to a sort of drifting rather than a fitful rest, but that had to be good enough.

Twice Aaron stopped the car. Both times he returned within a few minutes, which was good, because if it’d taken him any longer, Alex would have sat up and tried to figure out what they were doing. But he wanted to trust Aaron. To listen to him and if Aaron wanted him to wait to find out- well, Alex was going to try and do something right today.

Even if doing right meant curling up in a ball and being quiet. 

It might have been five minutes after their last stop, it might have been twenty, but eventually, Aaron put the car in park and got out so that he could open Alex’s door. Cold air rushed him, and Alex burrowed further beneath the blanket even as Aaron snorted, reaching over his body to unbuckle his seatbelt. “Come on, we have a date to finish.”

A date to finish. That was right.

Which meant that Alex needed to stop being so ridiculous. Didn’t protest when Aaron tugged him out of the car, just looked around, trying to keep the confusion from his face. “Well- I mean, it isn’t crowded.”

It wasn’t crowded because no one was there at all. One lone car that likely belonged to whoever was behind the desk in the little information building, but other than that?

The lot was completely empty.

Aaron shrugged, dragging Alex’s attention to the bag in his hand. “You can talk about whatever you want, as loud as you want here.”

Heat flared in Alex’s cheeks. “You can listen to me talk any day, we should be doing something special.”

“We are.” Aaron turned, bag rustling as he walked toward the mouth of the trail. “There’s a bench this way. You can grab the blanket if you think you’ll want it.”

Because it was cold. But not quite cold enough to justify arguing with Aaron over it, especially when he offered a solution. So Alex trudged behind, blanket wrapped around his shoulders. A blanket that he spread out over the bench when they got there, offering both of them a little protection from any splinters that were lurking.

Aaron kissed his cheek before digging into the bag and pulling out a pint of ice cream. “I stopped by one of the university gas stations. Apparently, they make this stuff on campus. Should be good.”

Heaven was more like it, smooth and creamy- just the right amount of sweetness too. Definitely valentine weekend worthy.

Especially once Aaron slipped an arm around his waist. Alex leaned into him, head on Aaron’s shoulder even as he denied the next spoonful of ice cream. “Why are you so nice to me?”

“You’re ridiculous.” Aaron, with his inhuman ability to predict Alex’s every inane thought, squeezed him. “We’re dating for a reason. A reason that does not suddenly go up in smoke because you got a little too excited.”

“That makes it sound like I came in my pants.” Alex tucked one of his legs under him, feeling self-conscious even as Aaron held him tighter. “Then again, you probably would rather we’d had a quicky than me ramble forever. At least then we probably would have gotten to see the lemurs.”

Not that walking over a mile in the woods sounded pleasant with sticky pants, but he would have done it. 

“They hold tours six days a week, Alex.” Amusement, whether at Alex still being upset or his comment about coming in his pants, Alex didn’t know. “And I like listening to you talk. Be pretty miserable in this relationship if I didn’t.”

Six days a week. Okay. Maybe that wasn’t too bad, they could find another date? And Alex could save up. He’d seen on the little brochure thing where it was possible to paint with the lemurs for a couple hundred bucks. It would be a special treat, a way to make up for how badly he’d screwed up.

But the other thing- “I could talk less.”

Could try at least. It wasn’t his fault that sometimes his brain went too fast and the words had to go somewhere or they’d clash around in his head for hours. When he was alone, Alex blogged about things or fact checked thoughts, but it was rude to have his phone out when he was with Aaron. Didn’t want to be rude, didn’t want to lose him.

Aaron kissed his temple. “I’d have to gag you for that to happen.”

Part of Alex wanted to run with that, make another sex joke to defuse the tension. But no, this was a conversation they needed to have- “If you wanted. I could talk less.”

Alex could almost hear the eye roll in that exaggerated sigh. “You are the only person who could hear ‘I like listening to you’ and take it as ‘please talk less.’ My only regret is that you decided to tell me the entire plot in one go while we were sitting outside rather than letting me read some of it. It sounded really interesting.”

“You could read it anyway.” Maybe he was letting himself get off track, but- “The art really adds to it and sure, there won’t be any plot twists right now, but there’s new pages being added pretty regularly.”

That was the best part of the webcomics Alex was reading right now. One of them did have the more sporadic update pattern- but he’d stuck it in a bookmark folder with a reminder to check in a few months. Other than that? Once or twice a week. For the price of a few coffees, he could support them and get all sorts of neat content that he wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. 

The one he’d been telling Aaron about earlier even had music! Music that the artist created themselves, which floored Alex on so many levels. To think that people could be so talented in so many different ways.

“Would you like to reread the comic with me?”

That could be nice.

Another kiss to the top of Alex’s head. “Come on then. It’s freezing out here. We’ll go back to my place and reread Always Human together.”

Aaron gathered up their trash as Alex wrapped the blanket back around his shoulders. “Thanks. For this and just-” Alex puffed up his cheeks trying to find the words- “not getting mad earlier.”

It earned him a fond shake of the head. “To the car. And just think, while we’re reading the comic, you can show off just how good you can be at keeping quiet.”

For the first time since the woman at the desk let them know there were no more spots, Alex grinned, sticking out his tongue. “If I keep my mouth shut the whole time, you have to order Thai.”

“And if you talk before we’re done, you’re making pancakes in the morning.”

That was a challenge Alex had no problem agreeing to.


End file.
